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" DOMESTIC WORKERS DOMESTIC WORKERS (The Legal Identity, recognition, and protection) By Shoaib Anwar Qureshi, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Lahore "It is necessary to protect the rights of the domestic workers; to regulate their terms of employment, and working conditions of service; to provide them social protection, and ensure their welfare, and to provide for the matters ancillary thereto1" INTRODUCTION Pakistan is the land with the employment of about 8.5 million domestic workers. Still, there was no coherent legislative framework to regulate their employment, and this informal sector was left at the mercy of the employers. Identity has always remained an issue for domestic workers. These workers have remained excluded from the scope of labor laws for private households and have never been entitled to claim social securities2. The domestic workers have remained vulnerable to deplorable working conditions, labor exploitation, human rights abuses, and legal protection. The Punjab Domestic Workers Act, 20193 is aimed to create such a framework by incorporating the recommendations of ILO's Domestic Workers Right Convention4 into domestic law. This paper will argue that in what manner this law5 will bring a drastic change in society by drawing the informal sector of domestic workers into the mainstream. We shall discuss how the law has given the identity to large-scale household employees and what protections are guaranteed to domestic workers. The courts' role has always been towards recognizing and protecting this vulnerable informal sector of employment. We will find how the Lahore High Court played its role in convincing the legislature to draft the enactment6. BACKGROUND Admittedly, there is no accurate figure for domestic worker employment in…